


Flowers of Hell

by Hinganbachuru (Twilight_Joltik)



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club, Hidden Block - Fandom, PBG Hardcore series
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, like x-men but more slice of life-y, school au, superpower au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 13:24:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12558344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Joltik/pseuds/Hinganbachuru
Summary: There's a hidden school for people with mysterious powers, where students learn to control their gifts. It seems almost like paradise to its students, who faced danger and hatred for their abilities all their lives. But, it seems a shadow is falling over their heaven.





	Flowers of Hell

**Author's Note:**

> This is a combination of a lot of ideas I've been sitting on for a while? So, uh, here goes nothing.

Dean had always said their powers were cool. That what they could do made them special. This never stopped people from shrieking in fear when Stewart faded into the corner of the room to stop people from laughing, but it was a nice thought. He'd never thought of himself as a Jean Grey or a Wolverine, but he wouldn't say anything like that to Dean or Austin or Barry. That fantasy was all they had sometimes, and he wouldn't ever be the one to take it from them. 

 

He'd always thought it was silly to think there was any sort of special place for people like them. Sure, there had to be more of them out there- if there were four of them in the same small town, there had to be quite a few of them. But, nothing like that would be plausible. The government wasn't exactly tripping over itself to give grants to people with powers, and really, it just seemed everyone pretended they didn't exist. He didn't even know what to call people with powers, if there was a name. Mutants seemed silly, and while Barry’s suggestion of Powered was cute, it was a bit too generic to be anything meaningful. 

 

It seemed like his whole life would be like this, holing away with the only three people in the world he trusted, and honestly, he didn't mind it. His brother seemed happy, their friends seemed happy, and really, he could be content as well. He’d planned it out when he was little - he could marry Dean and Austin could marry Barry and they’d all be a happy family of outcasts. He wondered if any of the rest of them recalled his idea, because it still seemed like a good one to him, but he was a bit afraid to bring it up out of fear it’d be dismissed as the kind of thing a child would have daydreamed about instead of a realistic solution.

 

The future seemed clear. Not bright, but not completely dark either. And that was fine. He liked transparency. 

 

Or at least, it was transparent until the day the four of them were called out of class all together. His heart jumped a bit; had they done something wrong? Did some jerk claim they’d used their powers to harass them? There were snickers as they all stood up that made his throat tighten, only increasing as Dean slipped his hand into his own in an attempt to reassure him. He couldn’t say he wasn’t grateful for a gesture of support, but one that so clearly marked them out as something these people deemed abnormal? That just made him want to melt into the shadow of the bookcase for the next hour or so.

 

But he didn’t pull away. He couldn’t pull away, he didn’t want to lose that reassurance. And, in the empty halls, that reassurance was stronger than any amount of laughter could soil. He was not alone. He had his friends. No matter what this was, they could pull through.

 

After a bit of silent walking, Dean piped up with a questioning “do you think this is for the library fines finally?”

 

That elicited a few giggles. “I mean, it’s been three years,” Barry mused. “You’d think they would have forgotten by now.”

 

“And that we might owe like, ten thousand bucks by now,” Austin added. “In which case we’re kinda screwed.”

 

Stewart had nothing to add, so he just nodded and tried to think of something to say until they got to the office they’d been called to. The guidance counselor’s office, one that none of them had ever been to and honestly, he hadn’t been fully convinced was actually in use. This school didn’t seem all too concerned with the mental wellbeing of its students, so the idea of them paying someone to worry about that seemed like a fairy tale they told first graders.

 

“Do we… all go in?”, questioned Austin. “Or one at a time?”

 

The door cracked open. A voice came from the slight crack. “Come in, all of you. I’ve been waiting for you.”

 

That voice was unfamiliar, but strangely reassuring as well. Maybe they actually did have a functional counselor? Stewart walked in first, finally pulling his hand away from Dean and mentally preparing a declaration of innocence for them all.

 

“No need to worry about what you might have done,” explained that voice, as if reading his mind. His head turned in the direction of the voice to see a man with darker skin, glasses, and hair pulled back into a ponytail standing in front of the empty counselor's desk. 

 

Considering said desk read “Miss Wakahisa”, he could only guess this man was not the school counselor. “Um,” Stewart stumbled as his friends filed in. “I- I- um…”

 

With a chuckle, the man closed the door back. “As you may have noticed,” he started, growing Stewart’s suspicion he could read minds, or at least people very well. “I am not your counselor.”

 

“Yeah, figured,” Dean blurted out. “So, like, is this not about the library fines?”

 

Austin elbowed Dean, muttering for him not to bring that up. The man just laughed a bit more. “Ah, well, no, it has nothing to do with library fines. I actually wanted to ask you about certain abilities I’ve been told you have.”

 

Oh. Oh god. Panic surged through Stewart’s body and he started melting into Dean’s shadow, as he so often did when scared. Dammit, that was exactly what he’d been meaning to not do! He should have just denied having powers, but nooooo, he had to become a spectral puddle!

 

The man looked down at the shadow he was hiding in and nodded. “Void Slip, interesting. What about you, Dean?”

 

Dean seemed surprised he knew his name but went along with it without question. “Uh, well, it’s hard to do it without a bigger space but-”

 

He bolted off, dragging Stewart along with his shadow. God, he hated it when that happened. Dean’s speed gave him motion sickness, and when he finally came to a halt, he staggered out of the shadow and into a chair nearby, eyeing a trashcan nearby. No, no, no puking in front of the man asking about powers. Even if he has no idea what was going on, that definitely was not the first impression he wanted to make.

 

“Very impressive,” the man praised. “Flash Step, that’s always a cool one. What about, ah, Austin?”

 

As much as Stewart wanted to warn him to be cautious, he was still dizzy and disoriented. So, instead he just hung his head as his brother took a deep breath. Out of the corner of his eye, he could tell he’d frozen the man in place.

 

Head spinning, he tried to look up and get proper words out. But, luckily, Barry said them for him: “Why did you do that?”

 

“Sorry, wasn’t thinking!”, Austin exclaimed. “Should have done a pencil or something, I guess.”

 

Letting out a grunt, the man broke from Austin’s power and laughed a bit. “Very impressive. Don’t see many Time Stops nowadays.”

 

“Um, and I can do this,” Barry muttered, raising his sunglasses just long enough to send a small beam of energy at the ground, leaving a bit of a scorch mark. “Not really… fun, but I can do it.”

 

“Focused Burst, that’s very impressive,” the man assured him. “All of you very impressive. But, well, it was never a matter of impression, just making sure that you really did need the offer.”

 

“Offer?”, Stewart repeated, looking up, with curiosity muting the nausea.

 

A nod. “Offer,” the man repeated. “See, we have an institution set up for people like ourselves, to keep us safe.”

 

The happy squeal in Dean’s voice showed all over his face. “You want us to be X-Men?”, he questioned in a high, happy screech.

 

“No, not quite,” the man corrected. “If you accept, you’ll be taught how to use your powers and control them, but you will in no way be heroes.”

 

Before he was even able to think, Stewart blurted something careless and thoughtless out: “We accept.”


End file.
